Sunday 5 September 2010

Hugo win for The City and the City

China Miéville's The City and The City - already a winner of the Arthur C. Clark and BSFA awards for best novel - has now gone and won a Hugo award as well. The City and the City was named joint best novel at the 2010 Hugo awards, along with The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi.

Congrats to China; great to see his undeniable talent being recognized and rewarded.

As an aside, it's been interesting to see The City and the City receive so much critical acclaim over the last year or so. Out of the three Miéville novels that I've read, it's easily my least favourite (the other two being the superb The Scar and the more recent tentacle-tastic Kraken). I wonder whether the fact that The City and the City is more mainstream than his other novels played a role. Then again, why should this matter for genre awards?

You can find the rest of the Hugo winners at the official website.

2 comments:

Jebus said...

I spoke to China a couple times over the weekend during Aussiecon 4, that due is _super_ intelligent and one fit unit besides. I felt like a pathetic little toad standing next to him. Guess I should dust off Perdido and give it another go.

James said...

Jamie - sorry, your comment got lost when I re-jigged the post due to technical issues!

Jebus - heh, I know what you mean - just standing next to China is enough to make you feel acutely inferior, both mentally and physically! Top dude though, great writer. Although his stuff isn't for everyone.